arguments over physics

[PnPgamer]

This question occurred to me when i was scouring the internet and looking rpg stuff and there was this blog post or something asking advice because of a electricity related physics debate occured between a dm and a player.

It got me thinking that what are the most occurred topics when it goes to arguing about physics that should happen when you do magic, technology or whatever other cause. Electricity functions? Gravity effects? What have you experienced? Please share and tell.

Do note that we are here to share stories, not start arguments of our own.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Just a short one: does teleportation conserve momentum? It came up when a player tried to save his character's behind from a 200 feet fall.

And playing science fiction games (Shadowrun, something Star Wars like with GURPS) can get peculiar with four physicists around the table...

 

[delericho]

There was a famous argument about whether freedom of movement was actually a guaranteed death sentence.

 

[PnPgamer]

There was a famous argument about whether freedom of movement was actually a guaranteed death sentence.

Famous is a peculiar word, and implicates "well known". I however have not heard of this case, so could you please tell more about it?
Not foecing you though if you dont want to go back into negative stuff youve experienced.

 

[delericho]

Famous is a peculiar word, and implicates "well known". I however have not heard of this case, so could you please tell more about it?

It was a lengthy internet debate in which it was argued that the freedom of movement spell should cause instant death as the target's molecules should immediately slide through those of the floor, the earth, or whatever else he was standing on, causing him to fall to the center of the planet. Then, when the spell expired, he'd be instantly crushed.

A cursory Google search doesn't show it up, I'm afraid. The whole thing was, of course, rather silly.

 

[trancejeremy]

One of the things I've always felt guilty about is one time pointing out to the GM that silencers don't work on a revolver.

It's one of those things that bug me (you see it a lot in TV and movies, though not as much as you used to since revolvers aren't nearly as common), but I shouldn't have contradicted him

I don't think teleport can conserve momentum. What if you teleported to the other side of the planet? You'd have all the momentum from the planet's rotation, but it would be going the opposite way, so you'd fly off.

Larry Niven (the Sci-fi author who came up with Ringworld) wrote an essay about teleportion that's worth a read.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I don't think teleport can conserve momentum. What if you teleported to the other side of the planet? You'd have all the momentum from the planet's rotation, but it would be going the opposite way, so you'd fly off.

This was one line of reasoning - which raises the question of frame of reference. Can you teleport on the back of a flying dragon in order to ride it? Is the frame of reference the dragon at its flying speed or the ground? If it's the dragon, so you're using a local frame of refrence, what happens when you teleport on the back of a horse galopping through the woods? Are you hacked into tiny pieces because numerous parts of your body happen to touch leaves when appearing, using their frame of reference?

 

[Wicht]

i would assume that part of learning a spell would be learning how to get it to do what you want it to do in the way you want it to work so that it compensates for all the niggling scientific things that people might worry about. Thus, yes, teleportation would conserve momentum because its built into the spell to do so, or else it would not be a very useful sort of spell. Freedom of movement does not automatically kill you, because if the spell worked that way then every wizard who cast it would be dead: as they are obviously not dead, then the spell was created to compensate for particular variables. Its magic, but it doesn't have to be stupid magic. There's a reason wizards have to study so hard.

 

[Zhaleskra]

It was a lengthy internet debate in which it was argued that the freedom of movement spell should cause instant death as the target's molecules should immediately slide through those of the floor, the earth, or whatever else he was standing on, causing him to fall to the center of the planet. Then, when the spell expired, he'd be instantly crushed.

A cursory Google search doesn't show it up, I'm afraid. The whole thing was, of course, rather silly.

I've read that there's a Batman Beyond episode where that happens to the villain because of a magic/science belt that allows him to phase through solid matter. Eventually he got so good at it, he didn't need the belt. Unfortunately, he's now permanently phased and alive at the center of the Earth.

Having played and won Ephemeral Fantasia, I look at RPG physics like this: if magic exists, magic is science. It doesn't tell the laws of physics to "shut up and sit down", it requests them to allow something.

A game world should follow believable physics within its own rules. Oh, you just killed a dragon in flight? Say goodbye to that small village in his crash path.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

I've found it rather challenging to run a "hard" science fiction campaign with players who aren't used to dealing with any level of realism. My current group is good, but the last bunch didn't have a physics background....

They wanted to make a "called shot" against an enemy spacecraft that's 20,000 kilometers away.

And they were convinced it's possible to "ram" another spacecraft at 10kps+ and survive.

They *really* didn't get the idea of spin gravity, and what happens to thrown/fired projectiles once they're released. (I didn't go into the gory scientific details: just imposed a basic penalty for anyone not adapted to spin gravity. They protested mightily.)